11 found dead in Delhi family home

Police hold back onlookers as the bodies of 11 family members
are removed from their home in Burari, Delhi

The bodies of 11 people have been found in a home in
Delhi after an apparent mass suicide. At least six of them had died
by hanging.

A neighbour discovered the macabre scene in the Burari
district of the Indian capital on Sunday, NDTV reports.

“All but one of the bodies were hanging from the
ceiling; most of them were blindfolded, gagged and their hands tied
behind the back,” the news site reports.

The body of Narayan Devi, 77, whose neck showed
signs consistent with strangulation, was found on the ground. Her
three adult children and their families, including two 15-year-old
boys, were suspended from an iron grille on the first floor,
according to local media.

Indian TV channel News 18 reported that a “liquid chemical” had been
found in the stomachs of at least five of the deceased and that a
post-mortem indicated that Devi had strangled herself with a
belt.

Police have confirmed that handwritten notes
were found at the scene indicating “observance of some definite
spiritual/mystical practices by the whole family”.

An officer told the Hindustan Times that the notes appeared to
contain guidelines for suicide, and that one claimed that “the
moment they hanged themselves and began gasping for breath, they
would see God saving them”. 

Based on an unspecified “clue” found at the scene, police are
now searching for a tantric spiritual leader believed to have been
in contact with the family, First Post reports.

A family friend told the Hindustan Times that
the family, who ran a grocery shop, were practising Hindus who had
become “very spiritual” around ten years ago, after one of Devi’s
sons made a “miraculous” recovery from a workplace
accident.

However, speculation that the deaths could have
been connected to mystical or occult practices met with disbelief
among surviving relatives.

“They believed in God, but who believes in such
things?” one relative said. “They were educated people and not
superstitious.”